Good Walt Disney books?

[mommyceratops]

What are some of your favorite Disney books? (Kevin and everyone on the boards let me know)

About Walt and imagineering? I got some amazon gc for Christmas and my Birthday and was thinking I might spoil myself and get something for me! Ha! Imagine that?!

Open to any and all Disney related recommendations.

TIA! popcorn::

Kevin and Pod Squads let me know what you like?

[Wojima]

I have purchased:

Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney (Book)
Walt Disney: The Triumph of The American Imagination (Book)
Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (DVD)

I liked the Inside the Dream book the best. It was very informative and include a ton of photos. The DVD is also very well done and it is based off of Inside the Dream. I was able to get both from Amazon for a real good price.

Brian

Feb 08 - WDW & Cruise (offsite)
Feb 07 - WDW (offsite)
Feb 06 - WDW (offsite)
Feb 05 - WDW (offsite)
Dec 97 - WDW Honeymoon (Port Orleans)

[Mom_Z]

I bought my husband the biography called An American Original Walt Disney written by Bob Thomas. My husband (who doesn't read much at all) could not seem to put the book down. He really enjoyed it. I just bought him the Imagineering Field Guide to Magic Kingdom. It is very easy just to read it in little spurts. I was enjoying the tidbits of information. My husband even made a comment that during our upcoming trip he wants to pay more attention to the details of the imagineering. It is facinating.

[GatorLady]

For Christmas I just bought my 15 year old son (and future Imagineer), "How To Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life". He's really enjoying it! (Bought on Amazon.com). Happy reading!

[OKW Lover]

I'll second the vote for the Bob Thomas book; Walt Disney, an American Original.

[ironz]

The Disney Treasures by Robert Tieman, and his two subsequent books are very nice. They have pullout very real-looking copies of old documents, cartoon sketches, Disneyland tickets, etc. as a fun accompaniment to the actual text.
The author works at the Disney Archives with Dave Smith. You can look up Robert Tieman on Amazon to find the actual names of the books.

[mommyceratops]

Wow! Thanks!! I am going to check them out!! Thanks so much!!!

[tammyandtommy]

I just read this one with mu daughter for a book report, it is an easy read. Alot of info. Sure its not adult content but we loved it.


Walt : The Magical Life of Walt Disney [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)
by Jean-Pierre Isbouts (Author) "Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901..." (more)
Key Phrases: Snow White, Kansas City, Los Angeles (more...)

[rosiejo]

Try any of the imagineering guides - I also got the Disney Mountains book for Christmas which is a very interesting read.

[disneycruise05]

I just finished How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life and am currently reading Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. I really enjoyed the first one. The second is good, but really, really dense. I'm only about 60 pages in (only 570 more pages), but I'm liking it so far.

If you decide to maybe get a DVD, the new Disneyland: Secrets, Stories, and Magic in the Disney Treasures line is really good. I just got it after waiting since 2005 when it was supposed to be released for the Happiest Celebration on Earth. I'm loving the DVD so far.

[DisneyKevin]

I have read enough about Walt's life and the facts about the early years of his career.

I tend to enjoy the first hand accounts and "insider" information.

Some of the recent ones I've enjoyed are:

Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent by Charles Ridgway

Realityland - True Life adventures at Walt Disney World
and
Mousetales - a Behind the Ears Lokk at Disneyland by David Koenig

The Complete Walt Disney World by Julie and Mike Neal

Kevin

[Uncleromulus]

Here are my "must haves":
Disney A to Z by Dave Smith
The Wonderful World of Disney Television --by Bill Cotter
The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin

[darby01_2007]

Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent by Charles Ridgway
I'm in the middle of reading this one right now and I'm really enjoying it.

[two-foxes]

For Christmas I just bought my 15 year old son (and future Imagineer), "How To Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life". He's really enjoying it! (Bought on Amazon.com). Happy reading!
I was reading this on maternity leave and really loved it. Now that I am back to work, I have yet to finish it, but it was a good read....and that is coming from someone who really isn't a reader.

[mommyceratops]

Thanks! :surfweb: I am going to look over them all and order tonight! I am so excited!! :)

Mommy never gets herself a book! Although my DS7 is so into Walt right now I am keep on brainwashing :yay:

[lamagique]

The ones I've read/am reading have been mentioned, but I'll just say it again: Walt Disney: An American Original was REALLY good and what I have read so far of How to Be Like Walt has been really good... some of the information is the same, of course, but with a cool, new angle. :) Happy Reading!

[Luv Bunnies]

We have a couple that are about Disneyland called Mouse Tales and More Mouse Tales. The author interviewed cast members and researched various incidents that happened at DL over the years. He talks about everything from pranks the CMs play on guests, injuries on the rides and lawsuits (real and fabricated) filed against DL. There are some really funny stories and some that aren't so funny. Both books give you a good behind-the-scenes look at DL, although I thought the first one was better. My 12 year old son used Mouse Tales for a book report that was on informational non-fiction. The book fit the bill perfectly and he got to write about Disneyland!

[wildeoscar]

There is a book "Storming the Castle"
My library is packed up to move at the moment other wise I would grab it to get the author and ISBN... but it tells the story from first hand account of how Disney was almost broken up and sold in the 80's. It talks about the Bass brothers being the white nights to bail the company out from hostile take over bids, how Eisner came to power, etc.

It is not a history of Walt, but it provides a lot of insight into why the company is run the way it is today.

This book was published in the late 80's I believe. When I get a chance, I open the box that it is in and get the info... and yes I am anal retentive enough to know what books are in what boxes while I am packed to move.

addendum...

Found the book on Amazon, it is out of print... Storming the Magic Kindgom.

"Disney is once again a golden name in Hollywood, but three years ago that wasn't the case, prompting a Disney family rift that erupted in a struggle for company control. But what Disney insiders saw as a mismanaged family business looked to Wall Street like a prime takeover candidate; the family squabble set off a chain of events that had such formidable financiers as Saul Steinberg, the Bass Brothers, even Ivan Boesky grappling for keys to the Magic Kingdom. Taylor, of Manhattan Inc., provides a detailed, conference-call-by-conference-call account of the ensuing paper war, in a narrative as fast-paced and exciting as a classic Disney adventure, with the company itself playing the Hayley Mills part: the imperiled, innocent heroine who at the end emerges harried but unharmedand more than a little wiser for the wear. Keeping financial jargon to a minimum, Taylor makes the Byzantine mechanics of contemporary finance easy to follow, shedding light on the takeover phenomenon and on the risks facing companies whose dearest assets are the creative talents of their employees."

[GinnyFavers]

Here's my favorite: WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING: A BEHIND-THE-DREAMS LOOK AT MAKING THE MAGIC REAL by the Imagineers themselves.

Tons and tons of photos, concept drawings, etc. from the Disney archives. It focuses mainly on the parks, as opposed to Disney animation.

Hardcover came out in 1996, paperback in 1998, still in print!

Sorry, tried to get a link to it for everyone but the DIS won't let me use that site that makes little URL's (what's up with that???) and the search result link is like four lines long from Amazon, you'll have to search it up yourselves.

[Minnie Lor]

Love Disney books. My favorites are "DisneyWar" and "Building a Company". The last one made me a huge Roy Disney fan.

[Minnie Lor]

Spinning Disney's World: Memories of a Magic Kingdom Press Agent by Charles Ridgway

Realityland - True Life adventures at Walt Disney World
and
Mousetales - a Behind the Ears Lokk at Disneyland by David Koenig

The Complete Walt Disney World by Julie and Mike Neal

Kevin

I've read Charles Ridgway's book. It was ok. I'm reading Realityland by David Koenig right now. Fascinating! I got to walk thru Future World with David a few weeks ago and I learned so much.

The Complete Walt Disney World is the best planning book that I own (I own alot)

[robertgp124]

Has anyone read Team Rodent by Carl Hiaasen? I was just looking at it as a download from Audible. I know the podcast members have said the Florida media love to beat up on Disney. Any thoughts on if it's worth reading?

[clombardi]

I loved Spinning Disney's World, The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom, and The Complete Walt Disney World. Also, we have read the novel The Kingdom Keepers, a fictional children's story set in the Magic Kingdom. It is written on about a fifth grade level and is filled with references to the Magic Kingdom. It was really a hoot to read! If you read it, you'll never look at the dolls in IASW the same again!

[pschnebs]

Hmmm... my favorite Disney books... got a couple of hours? :)

I don't have a lot of books on my shelf specifically about Walt, but there are some books out there that I've found interesting. I just finished the Neil Gabler biography "Walt Disney and the Triumph of the American Imagination" a couple of months ago; it's really detailed and you may not necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, but it's a fascinating book. Just be prepared to devote a LOT of time to it - it's about 800 pages plus!

The Bob Thomas books, "Walt Disney: An American Original" and "Building A Company" (which was Tomas' biography of Roy) are both fascinating; if you have the time, consider reading Bob's book on Walt first, then follow up with the book on Roy. I read "Building A Company" first; you gain a real appreciation for everything Roy did to make what Walt wanted to do financially possible.

I also enjoyed Steven Watts' "The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life"; the book concentrates more on the people around Walt and how Disney's work influenced American culture and vice versa.

Another book I'd recommend would be "Remembering Walt" by Howard and Amy Booth Green; this book was fascinating to me because it's a collection of recollections of people who worked with Walt. The recollections don't always paint a picture that is consistent with our image of "Uncle Walt" from TV - he could be very difficult to deal with and a hard taskmaster as well as inspiring and brilliant - but you can see that the folks around him were very devoted to Walt and what he created in spite of his flaws.

While the next two books I'm going to mention are more about aspects of Walt then general biographies, they're fascinating in their own right, because they provide some insight into the passions of Walt that created the parks. First off, there's "Walt Disney's Railroad Story" by Michael Broggie. The first section of the book goes into the history of Walt's love of trains and how that love of trains inspired him to create his first backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific, and Disneyland; the second section talks about the railroads found at all the Disney theme parks and resorts. Some folks may find the technical discussions about aspects of railroads and railroading to be a bit much, but it's an interesting book overall.

The scond book I'd like to mention is "Walt Disney and the Quest for Community" by Steve Mannheim. This book deals with Walt and his ideas about EPCOT - not the theme park, but the city that was his reason for coming to Florida to begin with. This book's probably intended more for an academic audience than a general audience, but it's interesting to read about Walt's ideas for the city of the future and how the Imagineers and the other folks around him tried to flesh out those ideas into practical concepts. It also gives you a feel for how much Walt left unsolved as far how his vision would be made real; after you read this book, you can't help but wonder how much more likely EPCOT the city would have been if he had lived a few years longer, or whether even Walt could have inspired the people around him to surmount the challenges he faced with EPCOT.

I'll get to books about WDI that are my favorites in my next post...

[pschnebs]

Now, as to books about Imagineering. I love books and magazines about the making of the Disney theme parks, I notice that most of the books I have tend to lead toward the visual aspects of Imagineering than the nuts and bolts process - although I'm not sure that it's because of some bias on my part or because of a tendency by the Imagineers to want to share the art they've created in building the parks rather than the nuts-and bolts of how they create the parks! ;) In any case, here are some of my favorite books...

"Walt Disney Imagineering" by the Imagineers: A great introduction to the process of and the elements involved in creating the parks and the attractions in them. Not much text, but the illustrations are wonderful.

"Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance": This book accompanied an exhibition of art and models from WDI a few years ago. The text is really academic and more than a little dense in some places, but the illustrations are wonderful and include a lot of pieces you may not see anywhere else.

"Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show" by John Hench: John's book is a discussion of some of the things he learned while working as an Imagineer as far as design, use of color, visual storytelling and bringing the characters to life in three dimensions in the parks and resorts.

"Walt Disney's EPCOT" and "Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality": Two books that cover the creation of the attractions in the theme parks. Fascinating descriptions of the design process and some wonderful artwork.

Another book that I thought was interesting and touched on the porcess of Imagineering a theme park was "Once Upon An american Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland". The book's focus is more on the early years of the park and reactions to it, but the section on the creation of the park was fascinating.

[danv3]

Got Realityland for Christmas and am reading it now. Very interesting.

Read Neil Gabler's Walt Disney earlier this year. It was good, but as some one else mentioned, dense.

[dphoto]

I have over 100 books on Walt Disney and Disneyland and there are many good books. Below are will give some of my favorites.

The Animated Man by Michael Barrier one of the best books if you want to understand the real Walt Disney. It is much better IMO than the Gabler books that seemed to many made up theories/speculation about Walt. The Magic Kingdom by Watts is also pretty good. The Bob Thomas biography on Walt glosses over too much and thus does not give a very true picture of the man.

Walt Disney's Railroad story by Michael Broggie is among my favorite books. While it focuses on trains, there is a lot of first hand information about Walt and what led him to build Disneyland. If it is not available on Amazon, you should try carolwood.com.

Inside the Dream, the Personal Story of Walt Disney is a companion book the documentary about Walt done by the Disney Family Museum. While nothing earth shattering the book and the documentary are worth getting. The book “Hand Behind the Mouse” is a biography about Ubbe Iwerks is also a good read and the related documentary is included as bonus material in the new Oswald Treasures CD. Walt Disney's Missouri is a lot better than it might sound. It gives a lot of information about the places were Walt grew up.

Another book that is a very fun read and cheap if you can find it is Bill Peet’s autobiography. He had a love/hate relationship with Walt. He was a very good writer for Disney and was also an illustrator (he had a second very successful career as a children’s book writer after leaving Disney in the early 1960’s).

The book Walt Disney's Imagineering is pretty light on information but has a lot of good "eye candy" (pictures). Designing Disney's Theme Parks, The Architecture of Reassurance by Karal Ann Marling has a lot of good information on the buildings of Disneyland and WDW.

Another one of my favorite books is The Nine Old Men by Canemaker. This will give you mini-biographies of the most famous Disney animators, many of which worked on the theme parks.

The best two books on Disneyland are going to be hard to get. They are Disneyland, the Inside Story by Michael Bright, and Disneyland, the Nickel Tour by Gordan and Mumford. Unfortunately neither of these is still in print and they can be quite expensive to obtain these days.

Some of the best information on Imagineering are in fanzines (published by fans). The E-Ticket is still available and they have CD’s that cover many of the back issues.

[pschnebs]

Totally agree with your recommendations of "The Nickel Tour" and "Inside Story", dphoto. Both are hard books to find, but both are absoultely indispensible if you want to create a good library on the Disney theme parks.

Another good source of "eye candy" on the parks is "The Art of Disneyland" by Jeff Kurtti and Bruce Gordon. Absolutely wonderful illustrations.

[fakereadhed]

Just a tip: I was able to find out of print Disney books at my local library doing an online search of surrounding libraries and putting them on hold. Off to search for some of these titles!